floating debt

Miscellaneous public debt, like exchequer and treasury bills, as opposed to funded debt, that which has been converted into perpetual annuities like consols in Britain

in someone's debt

Under an obligation (not necessarily pecuniary) to someone

national debt see under nation¹

float /flōt/

intransitive verb

1. To be supported on or suspended in a fluid
2. To be buoyed up
3. To move lightly, supported by a fluid
4. To seem to move in such a way
5. To be free from the usual attachment
6. To drift about aimlessly
7. (of an employee) to move between different tasks according to short-term requirements
8. To flow (Milton)
9. To be flooded (Spenser and Pope)
10. (in weaving) to pass threads without interweaving with them
11. To use a float
12. (of a currency) to be free to fluctuate in value in international exchange (economics)

transitive verb

1. To cause to float
2. To cover with liquid (obsolete)
3. To convey on floats
4. To levitate
5. To separate by flotation
6. To smooth
7. To pare off (eg turf)
8. To launch (eg a scheme)
9. To circulate (eg a rumour)
10. To offer (stocks, etc) for sale to raise capital
11. To launch (a company) by drawing up various documents and raising cash by selling shares
12. To negotiate (a loan)
13. To put forward for consideration

noun

1. A contrivance for floating or for keeping something afloat, eg a raft, the cork or quill of a fishing-line, the ball of a ballcock, etc
2. A blade in a paddle wheel or water wheel
3. A floating indicator attached to a fishing-line, that moves when a fish takes the bait
4. A tool for smoothing
5. A plasterer's trowel
6. A low cart for carrying cattle, milk, etc or decorated as an exhibit in a street parade, etc
7. A footlight or the footlights collectively
8. Money in hand for a purpose such as to give change to customers, to provide for expenses, etc
9. State of floating (Keats, etc)
10. A wave (lit and figurative; obsolete)
11. A soft fizzy drink with ice-cream floating on the top

floatˈable adjective

floatˈage or flōˈtage noun

1. Buoyancy
2. Anything which floats
3. Flotsam
4. The part of a ship above the waterline

floatˈant noun

An agent that causes something to float

floatāˈtion noun same as flotation (see under flote)

floatel noun see flotel

floatˈer noun

1. A person or thing that floats
2. A vagrant, or a person who drifts from job to job or allegiance to allegiance
3. A person who performs different tasks as required (esp N American)
4. A blunder (slang)
5. A floating policy (US)
6. A meat pie floating in pea soup (Aust)
7. A dark speck that appears to float before one's eyes, caused by dead cells and fragments of cells in the lens and vitreous humour

floatˈing adjective

1. That floats, in any sense
2. Not fixed
3. Fluctuating
4. Circulating
5. Not clearly committed to one side or the other (politics)

noun

1. The action of the verb
2. The spreading of plaster on the surface of walls
3. Flotation therapy (see under flote)

floatˈingly adverb

float'y adjective

(of a garment or fabric) light and delicate

floatˈ-board noun

A board of an undershot water wheel or a paddle wheel

float chamber noun

A chamber in a carburettor in which a float controls the level of fuel

float glass noun

Glass hardened while floating on the surface of molten tin

float grass or floating grass noun

Floating meadow-grass (Glyceria fluitans)

floating battery noun

A vessel or hulk which is heavily armed, used in the defence of harbours or in attacks on marine fortresses

floating bridge noun

A bridge supported on pontoons

floating capital noun (economics)

1. Goods, money, etc
2. Capital not permanently invested

floating charge noun (law and economics)

A fluctuating borrowing facility secured on the total assets of a company

floating crane noun

A large crane carried on a pontoon, used in docks

floating currency noun (economics)

A national (unit of) currency whose value is allowed to fluctuate freely in the international trading market

floating debt noun (economics)

(an) unfunded debt or short-term government loan

floating dock noun

A floating structure that can be sunk by admitting water to its air chambers, and raised again carrying a vessel to be repaired

floating island noun

1. A floating mass of driftwood, or of vegetation buoyed up from the bottom by marsh gas, or anything similar
2. A dessert consisting of meringues floating in custard

floating kidney noun

An abnormally mobile kidney

floating light noun

A lightship

floating-point notation noun (computing)

The expressing of numbers as a fractional value (the mantissa) followed by an integer exponent of the base, eg ±0.34791×10³

floating-point number noun (computing)

A number so expressed

floating-point operation noun (computing)

The addition, subtraction, multiplication or division of two floating-point numbers

floating policy noun

An insurance policy covering movable property irrespective of its location

floating rib see under rib¹

floating vote noun

The votes of electors who are not permanently attached to any one political party

floating voter noun

float plane noun

A seaplane

floatˈ-stone noun

1. A porous spongelike variety of silica, so light as to float for a while on water
2. A bricklayer's smoothing tool

float tank see flotation therapy under flote